Now there's your real pollution, Sheila, too blasted many people per million are professional busybodies and dogooders who believe everything tastes better if they piddle in it! -- L. Neil Smith

Sunday, February 29, 2004

I wish I had said this

This comes from Chaos Manor, one of my favorite sites. You'll have to follow this link, then page down just a bit.

"I would rather see economic inefficiencies than disrupted lives."

Each job lost, factory closed, tears out a life's work. That might not have been so in times when we had a pick of factories in a town, or in a neighborhood of a city, but now people have to leave when their work closes down.

There's a more, and I encourage you to read it. I've been thinking along these lines, but John Welch has beaten me to it and written it up well.

Our Brave New World Order is going to reduce us to third-world status economically. I understand that free trade is supposed to be the "rising tide that floats all boats". But as we're practicing it, it seems like we're chopping holes in the bottom of our boat while the rest of the world is building new boats. Perhaps that is the inevitable chaos of an economy in transition, and we'll reach a new equilibrium that does bring greater economic prosperity for all nations.

But I don't think so. No one plays by "the rules". Some countries, who shall remain nameless, use free trade as a smokescreen. They manipulate their currencies, dump their goods in our markets below the cost of production to build market share and loot us for our best jobs.

We let them do it, because even though we don't play by the rules, we come closer than most. And that gives them an opening that they're not too proud to take.

So where do we go from here? I'm not sure in a global sense. I know that I work in an area that is ripe for outsourcing, and I'm planning accordingly. You'll need to consider your situation and do the same.